The Sound Of Falling Leaves
This is a very short chapter for me. o.o It is here to establish certain things really. The real plot will begin in Chapter Two. See? It really is being sluggish right now. laughs
Chapter One : 'The Continuation Of Konoha'
The Hokage of Konoha leant wearily on his desk and felt his throbbing throat demand a drink. It had been a long time since he could concentrate on such a menial thing, due to the ridiculous amount of paperwork he had endured that day. People, or 'victims' as he now refered to them as, who were appointed as Hokage always seemed to have a bus-load of work to do on their first day. The memoirs of his five predecessors confirmed this. Looking despondantly at the pile of papers before him, he took a long gulp of water.
His bodyguard, who too was new on that very day, stood rigidly behind him. His uniform itched and the rough wall he was leaning against was playing havoc with his back. Despite this, he had been content to be in the Hokage's silent company. It was not very different from the days they had spent under the clouds in their youth.
After hours, the Hokage spoke.
"Chouji, am I in the Hokage's office?"
"Yes, sir."
"Am I doing the Village's official work?"
"Yes, sir."
"Did Tsunade appoint me a month ago?"
"Yes, sir. To the very day."
"Did Naruto punch me in the face when he heard the news?"
"Yes, sir. Regrettably so, sir."
"I see." Shikamaru said, and yawned heavily. He still did not believe that this was all some hallucination. Itachi had returned once more and had cast this genjutsu on him. Yes. However inplausible that was, it had to be the case. Well, hallucination or not, he had to finish out-lining his ideas on the concept of a secret police force.
"Who is the least troublesome person you can think of, Chouji?"
"You, sir."
"Apart from me."
"Umm, someone like Aburame Shino I suppose. He doesn't say much, after all."
"Yes, yes, I agree. Who's my secretary again?"
"That squeaky Umi girl."
"Oh god, her. The squeaky one. I need to see Shino tomorrow. She'll have to get in contact with him and book an appointment."
Chouji nodded uneasily. Shikamaru, sensing something amiss, turned his head to him.
"I'm sorry. You don't really want to hear all this boring stuff." he apologised.
"No no, it's just that it all tends to go over my head. I'm simply a bodyguard." Chouji smiled, but the unease was still present in his eyes.
"Well ... then maybe what I could do with is someone to discuss all these things with. Not an advisor, uh, or an advisor actually ... someone like that." Shikamaru mused, rubbing his chin with the end of his pen. The pen flew out of his hand as Ino burst into the office, with Umi the squeaky secretary close behind.
"This woman just went straight past all the guards, sir!" Umi squeaked, "They're preparing their special 'intruder' weapons right now." She looked Chouji. "Look! She's right here! You must protect the Hokage from her!"
Chouji shook his head.
"It's only Ino." he said, although it evidently pained him to say those words. Ino turned around, whipping Umi in the face with her long hair.
"Yes, don't you know who I am? I'm the only woman in these guys' lives, apart from their mothers. How could I not come and see them on their first day on the job? Besides, I haven't got all the time in the world so this is only a quick visit." she said, glaring at the secretary. Shikamaru looked up at the white ceiling and felt any pride he had drain out of him. She was right - she was the most prominent female in his life. This fact depressed him somewhat.
"What are you up to today then, Ino?" Chouji asked her cheerfully, as he was against a face-off between her and squeaky Umi, no matter how much the secretary irritated him.
"I have a photo-shoot at four, and then I have to help my mother close up the shop. Then I have to meet Neji at that new bar in the middle of town." Ino told him, striking each activity off on her fingers.
"Such an easy, care-free existance." Shikamaru muttered, scorning his troublesome friend's schedule. If it hadn't been for his own mother's insistance, he quite possibly would have declined the Hokage position. He probably had not grasped the gravity of the responsibility that accompanied the job straight away. Strangely, it was usually Ino who put things into perspective like that.
"Yes, but I have no idea what to wear tonight. Not that Neji ever notices anyway." Ino laughed. "He's always so preoccupied with his thoughts. But hey, I like that mystery."
Ino had been seeing Neji for two months, but she never seemed fulfilled or satisfied. Shikamaru and Chouji could tell when she was content in a relationship, and she had had many. Sadly, they usually ended up the same way - they'd dump her and then get married to the girl-next-door who could promise them children and a nightly meal on the table. Her two best-friends could only imagine that Neji would do the same, even though he did not seem the marriage-type. Then again, neither was Ino, so maybe it could work between them. Yet she always had some gripe that she had to express about him.
"Well, I shall have to mosey on over to the studio now. Have fun, guys! And congratulations again." Ino said, and blew them both a kiss. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and Chouji blushed behind his hand. When she had left, Umi approached the Hokage's desk.
"How on earth did you come to know a person like that, sir?" she asked, collecting the completed papers from the 'out' pile.
"Same team. The three of us. But I don't think we'll get to fight all together again. Ha, definately not now." Shikamaru said, and began to lazily reminisce.
"Well, I shall try to have her restrained next time she comes in, sir."
"Ino, restrained? That won't be easy." Shikamaru guffawed. Umi frowned to herself, and left the room, leaving him with a full in-tray and empty out-tray.
"I should like for the three of us to hang around sometimes. Just like the old days." Chouji said, momentarily forgetting that bodyguards were expected to be silent in the presence of their employers, "I can just picture us sitting in some bar like our fathers do."
"Sitting under trees was more our thing." Shikamaru said. Nothing more was said for some time, as the new Hokage thought it best to continue with his work.
"I have meetings with Shino and the Head of the Hyuuga clan tomorrow." he declared after a while, "And then next week the Kazekage is visiting Konoha. It's going to be reunion after reunion."
Chouji merely nodded.
"You can talk, you know. I couldn't give a rat's ass about tradition or the bodyguard's code."
"Thank you, sir."
In his modest apartment, Uzamaki Naruto paced with meaningful aggression. The Kyuubei monster inside him was almost tempted to release itself and wreak havoc upon the village once more. I AM the sixth Hokage. That title is meant for ME, Naruto thought to himself, condemning both Tsunade and Shikamaru to the most hateful part of his mind. He kicked his kitchen cupboard door as if it was all its fault, and stormed off to his bedroom. How come all these bastards get great jobs and achieve their dreams? Shikamaru is Hokage. Gaara is Kazekage. Neji has been accepted into the main Hyuuga house and is dating Ino. And Sasuke ... who knows about that bastard. He's the biggest bastard of them all. And he bastarded off and probably has the world at his feet. Or he's dead.
Naruto, since becoming a Jounin in the latest championships, had sunk into his unfortunate tendancy to have a bad time in life and found himself losing the ability to jump around and pretend he's having a good time. Finding out that Shikamaru, the laziest person he knew, had been appointed as Hokage had filled Naruto with both rage and sadness. His dreams were surely beyond his grasp now. Shikamaru would never pass his title onto him. Naruto was the integral part of why his first mission as a Chuunin had failed. Or so Naruto assumed Shikamaru thought.
He looked out of his window at the village of perpetual contentment. Everyone in Konoha seemed eternally blissful and happy. Yet another reason why Naruto was now, more than ever, the misfit. After his success in the Jounin trials, he had taken his empty feelings to Umino Iruka, his former teacher.
"Well, you can either go against this village which you loathe so much and cause an uprising, or ... you can go the other way. Do something to get recognised. Do something to help. Do ... do something truly magnificent. To achieve what you want, it will have to be quite big in scale. Protect and help this village which has scorned you so much, and people might be forced to open their eyes." Iruka had said. Naruto had considered these words at some length before deciding that it made sense. But he had already tried to do the greater good and had defended Konoha many times before. But he had not been the instigator of such tasks. And before he had heard about the Hokage business, he had concocted the perfect plan. Find Uchiha Sasuke. The dark-haired young man had been the focus of his thoughts for some time, along with his old team-mate Haruno Sakura. Sakura had never not talked about Sasuke, and even though he was long gone she still incessantly mentioned his name in every conversation.
Now Naruto thought about Sakura and her sad green eyes. He still cared about the highly-strung girl even though he knew she would always dislike him in return. He could see the roof of her house from his window and quite often stared at it when he couldn't sleep at night. In the glaring light of day he could hear her voice singing with the birdsong, and before each sunset her lavish pink hair lined the clouds. As far as he was concerned, she could be the only Sakura in the world - no blossom was like her.
A knock on his door turned him from the view and he went to answer it. Sakura stood at the threshold of his home, her eyes heavy and her mouth quivering.
"Sa-Sakura-chan?"
"Can I come in?"
"Yeah ..." Naruto said, and let her through. She faced him in the hallway, even though she looked as if she could use a sit-down.
"Naruto, I need to talk with someone. It just so happens that damn Ino is out tonight and, well ... no one else would understand." Sakura said quietly. Naruto wanted to hold her quaking shoulders and make her stand firm like the usual Sakura he knew. He was only used to seeing her like this in battle situations ... not normally.
"It's ... not easy. It's pointless, in fact ..." Sakura started, but was cut-off by sudden rainfall outside the window. The April clouds were converging on the sky above the village.
"It's been so long since we were Team 7. I can't tell you how much I miss those innocent times. I - I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I can't stop thinking about everything. Everything about ... Sasuke-kun."
Naruto squinted. He could not believe that she would call Sasuke that after all the years of his absence from her life.
"He still means so much, and I kind of hate myself for being so weak like that. The last time ... the last time he spoke to me, I told him everything. It was the day before you went on your mission to get him back. I said that he needn't be afraid to love. I wanted him to turn to me and declare his feelings. But, of course, he didn't. Was there anything ... did he feel anything back then? Anything ... for us?" Sakura said, and looked at Naruto while she awaited a response. Naruto's first thought was a flash-back of his fight with Sasuke and all that had been said. But it was not that which he drew upon to answer her. Not words ... but what he had seen. Things which had meant nothing until now.
"Sakura-chan, I've seen it. I've seen the desire to kill in his anguished eyes ... the murderous intent ... the hatred. But at the same time ... he was so frightened. I was there, and all I could see were his eyes. Can you imagine what it was like ... with such anger and terror at the same time. What was I supposed to think? It was worse than if he was purely being malicious. But I realised that his sharingan can't - couldn't - hide his true feelings. You never saw that. How can you love someone you know so little about?" Naruto said, the image of Sasuke as he had been back then before his mind's eye.
"How can you say that?" Sakura cried out after a moment. She drew in a shuddering breath and leaned back on the front door.
"If I don't know him, then why do I still feel this way?" she said.
"But what am I supposed to do about it?" Naruto said, starting to get a little frustrated. "We don't even know where he is. If he's ... alive, even."
"He must be alive. I can't imagine a world where he's dead."
"This is that world, Sakura!" Naruto said bitterly, leaving off the usual 'chan' for the first time, "Where the hell is he! He may as well be dead! He is not a part of your life now. Nor mine. Nor anyone's. He is gone."
"Thanks for being so understanding. You're as selfish as ever. God knows why I even bother to talk to you." Sakura said, and flung the door open. "Be alone forever, for all I care." With that, she left and slammed the door to. Feeling confused and angry with her, Sasuke and himself, Naruto glared at the spot where she had been standing.
"Sa ..." he said.